The Devil In The Shawl

Salem: Can you spot the devil?

'Salem' is a painting by Sydney Curnow Vosper, and shows the inside od a Baptist chapel in Cefncymerau, Llanbedr in North Wales. The central character Siân Owen of Ty'n-y-Fawnog who as you can see is making her way to her families pew to get ready for worship.
But this painting has an eerie story to it. It is said the the devil's face can be seen in the Welsh ladies shawl.
Its also believed that the shawl’s elaborate brightness is a comment by Vosper on the sin of vanity.
I have have a copy of Salem in my games room and its one of my favourite paintings. Not only because of the creepy story but its a wonderful look back at how life used to be in Wales.

Ghosts of Carew Castle

In the 17th century Carew castle's lord, Sir Roland Rees, a former pirate catptain, kept a Barbary Ape, inside the castle. Rees had acquired the creature on one of his many voyages. Rees was a very ill-tempered and mannered individual, and would host banquets at the castle just to shout insults and laugh at his guests. The ape, whom he named Satan, would mimick him and laugh at the guests too.
One stormy night, when there was strong wind and rain, the ape grew restless while Rees drank heavily in the dinning hall. There was a knock at the door and a Flemish tradesman appeared to deliver his rent, but had only half the money needed. Rees was already upset at the man because he did not approve of his son's relationship with the man's daughter. In a drunken rage, Rees loosened the ape’s chains and goaded it to maul the tradesman close to death. The tradesman escaped but, weak through loss of blood and struggling to make his way out, collapsed in semi-consciousness.
The tradesman was rescued by a benevolent servant who tended to his wounds and hid him away in his quarters, intending to let him go when the violent storm past. As the two men talked a violent cry and mad laughter was heard coming from the dinning hall. They rushed to the scene to find Sir Rees dead on the floor, his throat gashed open, and the ape burning in the fireplace. The ghosts of the ape and its master are said to haunt the castle to this day. Footsteps are reported reguarly, objects throw themselves, and the mad cackling laughter of an ape echoes through the halls.

The Devil Makes A Claim

Only his initials survive, time has taken the rest of the man now only known as W.E.. Being somewhat of a thug, a drunkard and a regular brawler he was not a man many people looked forward to bumping into. He once spat in the face of the village parson and punched him, and when a parish clerk unwisely interfered, W.E. beat the hapless clerk severely.
Rumours in the Welsh village were that this brutish man had sold his soul to evil, and he was proud of the many wicked deeds he committed. In fact he revelled in them, believing it great to hold such terror over people. Villagers always imagined W.E.'s end would be violent and shocking and they were not wrong.
One evening the bully disappeared. His house was checked but nothing. The next morning a search was made of the area and a body was discovered on the edge of a river. W.E. had been found and it was a cruel sight. An obvious struggle had occurred between the drunkard and someone (something?) unknown, and it was evident that the fight had started some distance away from the river.
The dead mans footprints showed that he had dug his heels in deep into the earth as if to resist his attacker who was seemingly intent on dragging him to the water.
Indeed as the search party continued to take in what they had found, they realised that W.E. had put up a desperate struggle.


A Hell Of A Fighter

There was an oak tree near the river and one of its boughs had its bark peeled right off. It was clear that the towns reprobate had clung to this bough for dear life until it had snapped because he still clutched it in his death. But the most violent part of the attack had taken place closer to the murky river water. There the body had been dragged underneath roots of trees and pulled through a hole barely big enough for a fox to slip through let alone a grown man. That crushing force extinguished the life of W.E..
But what of his assailant? Could it be that the towns infamous brawler had picked a fight with someone more fierce than himself? Footprints were found all over the grisly scene, however they all belonged to the wretched corpse. No evidence of there being another person could be seen. Not a thing.
Due to this and the fact the dead man had led a cruel, evil life, people in the town believed that W.E.'s final fight had been against something he had no hope of beating and that his murderer was no man but the Devil himself.

Bigfoot Returns?

A new video has been posted on Youtube showing a supposed Bigfoot wandering about near some trees in Kansas, USA. Personally I think it was more man-in-monkey-suit than Sasquatch but you can check it out here and see what you think. The mother in the video seems quite convinced.

Soul Taxi

Psychopomps (literally meaning 'guide of souls') are spirits, creatures, or angels in many religions whose job it is to ferry newly deceased souls to the afterlife. Bear in mind their role is not to judge the dead, but simply provide safe passage. Psychopomps have been associated in lots of different different cultures with ravens, crows, horses, owls, cuckoos and even sparrows.

Mirror of Death

Where Swim The Selkies...

Similar to a mermaid this one. The Selkie (or 'silkie' or 'selchie') is another shapeshifting creature in Irish, Scottish, Faroese and Icelandic mythology.
Legend tells that a Selkie can become human simply by stripping off their seal skins, and can return to seal form by slipping back into it. Think Mr Benn but without the time travel and Fez loving shopkeeper.
Stories involving these 'seal people' mostly involve romance and tragedy, where a human falls head over heels with one (unaware of the seal part) and wakes to find them gone. So we can assume Selkies enjoy one night stands. Other stories tell of the human (the normal one) hiding the Selkie's skin, cleverly preventing the poor things from returning to seal form. But this is a tad cruel if the legend is to be believed as the rules go that a Selkie can only make themselves known to one particular human before going back to the ocean, and their time on land is short. (However they can return after seven years).


A stamp featuring a Selkie or Seal Woman

It is told that male Selkies in order to avenge seal hunting, can create storms at sea and is able to sink ships. And should a woman ever get tired of dating human men and decide to try and find a male Selkie she has to visit a beach and weep seven tears into the sea. (Has someone ever tried this?)
And the good news for us guys is, should your lady ever manage to find her dream seal guy, then mourn not because female Selkies make wonderful wives or so the tales go. All you have to do is steal her oily skin to have her in your power. (The one drawback being that she will always stare out to the seashore, her true home).
Stories of these beings have been popular and numerous. One from 'In The Secret of Roan Inish', tells of a fisherman who steals the pelt from a Selkie while she is doing a spot of sunbathing. (Rather rude!) Then under his power she becomes his wife and they have children together. The husband hides the skin and many years later, one of their children discovers it and naturally asks what it is. Upon seeing it the wife drops whatever it was she was doing, grabs her long lost pelt and returns to the ocean to be a seal once more. Good story, but from what I can make of the ending, I guess she didn't like her kids too much. (Although to be fair some tales have their children going to the sea with them).
Other stories are more sinister than romantic, for instance theres one from Shetland which has the seal critters luring the islanders out into the waves where the lusty humans are never seen again.

A Selkie Song (Unknown author)

An Earthly nurse sits and sings,
And aye, she sings by lily wean,
And little ken I by Bairn´s father,
Far less the land where he dwells in.
For he came one night to her bed feet,
And a grumbly guest, I am sure was he,
Saying "Here am I, they bairns father,
Although I be not comely.
I am a man upon the land,
I am a selkie on the sea,
And when I´m far and far frae land,
my home it is in Sule Skerrie."
And he had ta´en a purse of gold,
And he had placed it upon her knew,
Saying: "Give it to my little young son,
And take thee up they nurse´s fee."
"And it shall come to pass on a summer´s day,
When the sun shines bright on every stane,
I´ll come and fetch my little son,
and teach him how to swim the faem."
"And ye shall marry a gunner good,
And a right fine gunner I´m sure he´ll be,
And the very first shot that he e´er shoots,
Will kill both my young son and me."

Peronally I think its quite beautiful, especially the gloomy end which hits you like a slap in the chops, but back to Selkies! Who were they really? And how did such a romantic (albeit strange and tragic) story ever get started in the first place? Well theories abound with the seal folk as much as they do with Yetis, and one idea is that fishermen saw a nomad tribe wearing seal pelts and sailing around in kayaks off the coast and BLAM! The Selkie was born.
While another says that Selkies were supernaturally formed from the souls of drowned people. That sounds deliciously otherworldly, so thats the theory im going to believe.

The Wendigo Ate My Flesh

The Wendigo (also known by other names) is a creature with a cannibalistic spirit which could possess humans. Those who ate human flesh before being transformed were at particular risk. It featured in the mythology of many North American and Canadian native peoples and the Algonquin tribe thought that if a hunter got lost in the mountains or forests and found himself begining to starve, then he would become a Wendigo.
Naturally some folk consider this beast to have sprung from the mind of horror writer, Algernon Blackwood, in his tale The Wendigo because humans will always try to rationalise the mysterious. But to the native tribes, the spirit was very real.


An artists impression of the Wendigo

Basil Johnston, an Ojibwa teacher gives one description of the Wendigo:

"The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tautly over its bones. With its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, the Wendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. What lips it had were tattered and bloody. Unclean and suffering from suppurations of the flesh, the Wendigo gave off a strange and eerie odour of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption."

However skinny the creature was, it had a voracious appetite and was constantly on the prowl for flesh to devour. Whenever it dined on an unfortunate victim, it would grow bigger (and in proportion to the meal it had just scoffed) so that the Wendigo could never be filled. The beast was simultaneously gorging itself and emaciated from starvation.
So how real were these things? Many believe the stories were created as a warning not to partake in cannibalism, while others think it was sightings of mysterious Yeti~like creatures that fuelled the legend. It can never be known for certain but settlers in the regions where the stories were rife definately took the Wendigo to their frightened hearts and not in a soothing way.
It allegedly made a number of appearances near a village in Northern Minnesota from the late 1800's until the 1920's and every time it was reported, an unexpected death followed until finally it disappeared, never to be seen again.
And this is exactly how I prefer such myrhs and legends to end. 'Never to be seen again', which implies it is still out there somewhere, biding its time in some dark cave before emerging to strike terror again.

The Shape Shifter

As mythological and weird beings go, the Popobawa is of fairly recent origin. It is believed to have first shown its nightmarish mug on the Tanzanian island of Pemba which sparked hysteria and panic which ran from Pemba right over to Unguja (main island of the Zanzibar archipelago), and way across to Dar es Salaam and other parts of the East African coast.
The name Popobawa or Popo Bawa is derived from a Swahili name which translates as 'bat-wing'. This name is supposed to have come from a description of the dark shadow made by the spirit and does not to its actual form because as a shapeshifter, its looks are prone to change often. It is said the creature is able to take either human or animal form.

A Popobawa

The Popobawa visits homes during the night (but has been spotted in the day) and some claim it has a strong smelling pungent whiff about it. They are not choosy who they attack, men, women and children have all been victims, and sometimes it preys on the entire household before moving on. These attacks can be a physical assault or it can behave in the same way as poltergeists. The Popobawa is also feared for its sexual assaults and the sodomising of both men and women have been reported. These poor victims are often forced to tell others of their assault, for if they do not they are threatened with more visits.
One of the victims of the attacks in 1995, has related his ordeal to the media. He said; "I could feel it, something pressing on me. I couldn’t imagine what sort of thing was happening to me. You feel as if you are screaming with no voice. It was just like a dream but then I was thinking it was this Popobawa and he had come to do something terrible to me, something sexual. It is worse than what he does to women." Hamad claimed that he did not believe in the Popobawa or other spirits before the attack and suggests that is the reason he was attacked. "I don’t believe in spirits so maybe that’s why it attacked me. Maybe it will attack anybody who doesn’t believe."
The Popobawa apparently becomes extremely angry if its existence is doubted or denied. It 'spoke' to the villagers on Pemba in 1971 through a girl possessed by the vicious creature.
An investigator found in 2007 that the story has its roots in Islam, and according to findings, “holding or reciting the Koran is said to keep the Popobawa at bay, much as the Bible is said to dispel Christian demons."
Naturally there are the skeptics and these claim that these attacks are a result of a hypnogogic hallucination during a 'waking dream'. As for myself I try not to discount anything in this world for like the Bard said, 'there are more things in Heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.' Especially when it meant a stiff boogering. Ouch!

Tatzelwurm

The cool sounding Tatzelwurm is a dragon/lizard type creature rumoured to live in parts of Europe such as the Switzerland, Austria, France, even Italy. (It is known as the Stollenwurm in Switzerland, Bergstutzen in Austria and Basilisco in Italy.)
The animal has a snake~like body (2ft to 4ft long) with two clawed front legs, but minus hind legs. Reports have claimed the Tatzelwurm can have the face of a cat or a horse and folklore claims that it is able to defend itself by expelling toxic odours capable of killing a man.


Tatzelwurm: the cat~serpent

Sightings have been numerous (althought admittedly getting rarer as time goes on) and one was as recent as 2009 where locals in Tresivio, a region of Italy on the Swiss border, claimed to have seen the lizard. True? False? Peoples excited imaginations running amok? Who knows, personally I don't find these stories that hard to believe if one dismisses the more fanciful descriptions such as having a cats head.
Perhaps the Tatzelwurm was a giant salamander that was once native to the European Alps? Bernard Heuvelmans, who many think of as the father of modern Cryptozoology, has a theory it could be related to the Gila monster of the American Southwest. Other investigators believe the Tatzelwurm might even be an unrecognized variety of otter.
Sadly as with most mysterious creatures and legends we might never learn the truth unless some fossil or skeleton is discovered and experts can examine the remains.

A more fanciful recreation of Tatzelwurm

World's Coolest Kitty

There are few cool cats that I could mention: Tom (& Jerry,) Garfield, Shere Khan, Top Cat, Hobbes (from Calvin & Hobbes) and those black types who used to perch on witches brooms, were all pretty slick. However there was one pussykins which could smite them all, one which made all the rest look like rejects from Cats R Cool and she is none other than the beautiful Bubastis.

One awesome pussy

Bubastis appeared in the Watchmen graphic novel and she was Adrian Veidt's genetically~engineered striped lynx created as one of his experiments and I immediately wanted this delightful looking kitty as soon as I clapped eyes on her. Look at the picture, who wouldn't? A fabulous feline.
Pity the heartless Veidt zapped the poor thing to dust in the end. Sad Face.

Man Of The Moth

This chap turned up on November 12, 1966 near Clendenin, West Virginia. Five men were in the local boneyard that day, digging a grave for a burial, when something that looked like a “brown human being” took off from trees nearby and flew over their suprised heads. The guys were obviously baffled as to what the creature was. It did not look like a bird but more like a man with large wings. A few days later, more sightings would take place, electrifying the entire region.
Mothman is described as bigger than a man, with glowing red eyes and wings of a moth. It may have eyes set in its chest. Old Mothy also possesses an unusual shriek.


Is it bird? Is it a plane? No its Super Moth!

Three days later on November 15 two young couples along with a young cousin were traveling late in a car. They were passing the old West Virginia Ordnance Works (an abandoned WW II explosives factory) in the McClintic Wildlife Management Area, when they spotted two strange crimson lights lurking in the shadows close to the factory gate. Being young and naturally curious they stopped the car and according to them saw what they believed to be the glowing red eyes of an animal. In their words 'shaped like a man, but bigger, maybe six and a half or seven feet tall, with big wings folded against its back.'
Scared witless they hightailed it in the car where the mysterious creature chased them at speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour.

***** More Sightings *****

On the morning of November 25, Thomas Ury was driving along Route 62 (near where the youngsters had seen Mothy) when he said he saw a bizaree being standing in a field by the road. According to Ury the creature spread its wings and took off, following his car as he sped into Point Pleasant to report it to the law.

On November 26, Mrs. Ruth Foster spotted Mothman standing on her lawn in the suburb of St Albans in West Virginia but alas he had disappeared when her brother~in~law went out to take a peek.

Then on the morning of November 27, Mothy pursued a woman near Mason, West Virginia, and was seen again in St. Albans on the same night by two young children.

The Mothman was seen on January 11, 1967, indeed spotted several times during 1967.

There are many theories about what this creature is. Some say it might be a Great Horned Owl as West Virginia has some of the largest variety in the world. This owl is able to walk upright on the ground which could be one possibilty.
Then there is the Great Grey Owl which is even larger than the great horned owl. Another possibility put forward is the gray sandhill crane.
Its more than possible for peoples eyes to play tricks with them, especially at night and at a time when the place was buzzing with sightings but owls are not capable of flying at high speeds without flapping their wings, and they certainly don't have giant red eyes set in their chests.
There were rumours that Mothman turned up to warn people of disasters. He was seen on the Silver bridge which spanned the Ohio river which connected Point Pleasant, West Virginia to Gallipolis, Ohio. It collapsed on December 15, 1967.
After the bridge was demolished, Mothy was never seen again in Point Pleasant.

Spring~Heeled Jack

Spring~Heeled Jack appeared out of the dark alleyways of 19th century London, attacking his unfortunate victims with dreadful scratches and cuts then leaping away with almost a superhuman ability before he could be caught.
The case of Spring~Heeled Jack, as this mysterious creature came to be known, is one of the most puzzling to have come out of Victorian Britain (and there have been more than a few) and it has never been solved or explained. According to most accounts, the attacks began in 1837 in west London. Polly Adams, a barmaid was one of three women accosted by Spring~Heeled Jack in the September of that year. According to Ms Adams he ripped her blouse off and scratched at her stomach and legs with iron~like fingernails or claws.
His victims painted a strange portrait of the fiend ~

Definately man-like, but with a cruel face
Has sharp iron-like fingernails
Is tall, thin and quite powerful
Glowing fiery eyes
Has the ability to spit blueish flames from his mouth
Wears a black cloak over a tight white oilskin suit
May have worn a helmet at times
Is somehow able to jump incredible heights and distances


Spring~Heeled Jack at work

The attacks continued into 1838, prompting official action by the Lord Mayor of London who declared him a public menace. Vigilante groups also tried to capture Jack but without any success. Rumors of sightings went on well into 1870. He was said to have frightened people with his ghoulish appearance (probably be labelled a 'goth' today) and often leapt away to the astonishment anyone who attempted to arrest him.
But however nasty and shocking were these attacks, Spring~Heeled Jack never killed or seriously harmed anyone, with exception of a teenager, Lucy Scales, who was blinded temporarily by the searing blue flames Jack spewed into her no doubt startled face.

Who or what was Spring-Heeled Jack? A superhuman diabolical madman? An alien? A demon? Chances are we will never know, hell he might even still be out there. Watching YOU.

Beware The Bunyip

The Bunyip (what an utterly cool word!) hails from Australia and was a creature which lived in rivers, lakes, swamps, and billabongs. As with most weird things they were pretty much hostile towards we human folk, so having one as a pet was a nonstarter. Bugger. The Bunyip would defend it's watery home from all who dared to visit, normally eating the hapless tresapasser. At night the Bunyip was said to go and prey upon women and children which were presumably more succulent than beer bloated guys.


A Bunyip ~ tastes like chicken

Here is one of the first written descriptions of the bunyip in 1845 ~

“The Bunyip, then, is represented as uniting the characteristics of a bird and of an alligator. It has a head resembling an emu, with a long bill, at the extremity of which is a transverse projection on each side, with serrated edges like the bone of the stingray. Its body and legs partake of the nature of the alligator. The hind legs are remarkably thick and strong, and the fore legs are much longer, but still of great strength. The extremities are furnished with long claws, but the blacks say its usual method of killing its prey is by hugging it to death. When in the water it swims like a frog, and when on shore it walks on its hind legs with its head erect, in which position it measures twelve or thirteen feet in height.”

~Peter Ravenscroft

Again in 1845 there were reports of the bunyip in the coastal town of Geelong, Victoria. Bones were discovered and a local Aborigine man identified them without hesitation as bunyip bones.
And Geelong offered up more evidences of the creature too. A local claimed that his mother had been killed by a bunyip at Barwon Lakes, a few miles from Geelong. Also there were reports of a woman being killed at the lakes where boats crossed to South Geelong and a Aborigine was said to have revealed nasty wounds on his chest which were made by the claws of a bunyip he came across at the Barwon waters.
Today the bunyip does not hold as much mystery and respect as it once did. Nowadays Australian children don't fear playing near waterholes and rivers, and the animal has become almost a joke. Something to enjoy mocking. But if you were on your own in the wilderness and suddenly heard something moving in the shrubs and heard a piercing scream that curdled your blood, you just might start believing in the bunyip again.

Churchill And The Saucers

Winnie stays quiet on the subject

Sources from the National Archive claim that Winston Churchill ordered the cover-up of a wartime encounter between a UFO and an RAF bomber crew. Of course this has been repeated as fact by the media but the story was based upon an anecdote reported in a letter received by the Ministry of Defence as late as 1999.
The author of the letter said he was the grandson of an RAF officer who was “part of the personal bodyguard” of the PM during WW2 and was present when the sighting was discussed with US General Eisenhower.
After a discussion of the matter, Churchill was supposed to have declared: “This event should be immediately classified since it would create mass panic amongst the general population and destroy one’s belief in the Church.”
Now its always puzzled me why church goers are reluctant to believe in UFO's and the like. Surely God didn't only create Man? Nah, He would have been cool and added martians with funny heads and vaporizer guns.

The Pig Face Ladies

Stories of pig-faced women originated roughly simultaneously in Holland, England and France in the late 1630s. The stories told of a wealthy woman whose body was of normal human appearance, but who had the face of a pig.
In the earliest telling of the tales, the ladie's piggy appearance was the result of witchcraft. Following her wedding day, the pig-faced woman's new (and probably confused) hubby was granted the choice of having her appear beautiful to him but pig-like to others, or pig-like to him and beautiful to others. Got that? When her husband told her that the choice was hers, the enchantment was broken and her Miss Piggy looks vanished. These stories became particularly popular in England, and later in Ireland.


The Pig Lady of Manchester Square

There a few different stories about the Pig Faced Ladies. One went that pregnant noble woman was approached by a beggar accompanied by her children but she would dismiss the beggar and not only that but would compare the beggar's children to pigs. The beggar would then curse the stupid noble woman and then the fun would begin because come the birth of the child it would be healthy and perfectly formed in every way apart from having the face of a pig. The child would remain healthy throughout childhood but with some of the behaviours of a porker.
In 1861 that crafty storyteller Charles Dickens remarked on the longevity of the belief in pig~faced women in Britain, commenting that "In every age, I suppose, there has been a pig~faced lady". So there.
In 1814 a rumour swept London that a pig~faced lady was living in Marylebone. Rumoured to be the daughter of an anonymous noblewoman, she was supposedly young, wealthy and living in posh Manchester Square. It was claimed that she would occasionally venture out of the house in a horse drawn carriage, hidden by a veil. This didn't go unnoticed and a few letters to London newspapers reported sightings of a snout protruding from a window, or a veiled, silhouetted swine's head in a passing carriage.
Now this rumour soon became the talk of the city and one woman even put an advirtisement in The Times newspaper offering to be the pig~lady's companion. Here it is:

For the attention of GENTLEMEN and LADIES.—A young Gentlewoman having heard of an advertisement for a person to undertake the care of a Lady who is heavily afflicted in the face, whose friends have offered a handsome income yearly, and a premium for residing with her 7 years, would do all in her power to render her life most comfortable, and undeniable character can be obtained, from a respectable circle of friends: an answer to this advertisement is requested, as the advertiser will keep herself disengaged. Address, post paid, to X. Y. at Mr. Ford's, baker, 12 Judd-street, Brunswick-square.

The Times, 9 February 1815

The display of 'pig~faced ladies' became extremely popular in fairs thanks to the story in London, to the extent that by 1861 the great goatee one Charles Dickens remarked that "no fair was complete without one". Exhibitions of this type were particularly popular in Dublin. But these were never real ladies. What would happen is fair owners would shave bears and get them drunk and put them in wigs and fake breasts then put these on show to a seemingly believing public.
The 1814 pig~faced lady craze was one of the last occasions in which the mainstream press reported the existence of pig~faced women as fact and by the 1860s exhibiting these 'women' at fairs was losing popularity. (However they did continue to be shown until the 1880s.)
Today sadly the legend is almost forgotten to us. But look more closely at those ladies who like to cover up their features. You just might see a snout.